Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Let the Games Begin!

Well, we've recovered from the amazing opening ceremonyies (I'm still trying to figure how to upload the videos). I woke up to see the Marianas flag right outside our dorm door. (Middle blue with star)

Monday was an off day from training, so we decided to go watch some other sports. While things here in Russia have been rather smooth, transportation is a bit of a hassle. It took us two hours to get to the USA vs. Czech Men's Basketball, but it was all part of the adventure of travel. In the end, we made it to our destination, with a story or two to tell.

Half time entertainment at the basketball game.

The US team has several players that will most likely play in the NBA in the next year or two. They beat Czech by 40 points.

Next stop was to the Indoor Volleyball facility where Canada lost to Chile. The main difference between Beach Volleyball and Indoor, is indoor has six players and beach has two. I love this shot, because the blockers(3 in red shorts) have just blocked the Chile player and you can see the ball (yellow and purple).

Close game.

There was entertainment here, too.

Then, lastly we went to watch Russia vs. USA in indoor volleyball that evening. Russia brought their number one, team A players (three of which played in the last Olympics, while the US sent a D-3 college team from Springfield, Massachusetts. It was a vivacious crowd and Russia won easily.

More entertainment. In this photo, the four guys in blue in the middle have thrown a girl up in the air and out of my camera view. You can just see her leg at the top.

Let the games begin! We are in a pool (4 teams) with Czech Republic, Oman and Austria. Our first match was this morning at 9am.

Now if I only had a place to sit...hmmmmm.

The boys with their new playing jerseys. The University Games provided each player with six different jerseys, all different colors. The team is looking good!

This is the head coach for Czech Republic. I gave him a t-shirt from one of our volleyball tournaments in Saipan and he became my best friend.

We played hard but lost to Czech, but it was our first international experience, and I was proud of the boys' effort and sportsmanship. They are representing Saipan in a positive light.

These two US players, Tri and Will, played in Saipan in March and are here competing. It is great to see friendly faces all the way around the world.

Our second game of the day was against Oman. The weather was super windy and there were lightening storms in the area.